Major Tim: I was trained for lockdown
MAJOR Tim Peake said he has felt so sorry for people forced into isolation from their loved ones during the Covid-19 lockdowns.
As an astronaut who spent six months on board the International Space Station he was trained to live in isolation 248 miles above Earth.
He told Desert Island Discs host Lauren Laverne: “We are so fortunate as astronauts, we have so much training and preparation to go and live in isolation.
“Of course everybody’s been launched into a year of lockdowns with no preparation, no training, no guidance or advice about what you can do to make life easier.
“We stick to structure and routine on the space station to help us make sure everybody knows what to do, when to do it and manage expectations to avoid conflict.
“We spent a week living in a cave, 12 days underwater, all to help us deal with these circumstances.
“So my thoughts have been with everybody trying to deal with the separation from their loved ones.”
On the way to the rocket that would take him to the space station in 2015, the former Army test pilot was pictured on a bus making a heart sign to his wife and two sons.
He said: “It’s the hardest thing ever to say goodbye. It’s even harder when you know you are putting yourself in harm’s way. At that point you are desperately thinking ‘Let everything go smoothly and don’t let this be the last time I see you’.”
Major Peake, 48, was the first Briton to carry out a space walk.
He told Laverne: “Lots of things can go wrong in space and it’s not your fault. But on a space walk, if something goes wrong it probably is your fault. The scope for human error is incredible.
“When you get out into that environment it’s exhilarating. There are moments of adrenaline when you drop out of the airlock and there’s planet Earth passing beneath you. And you look the other way and just see the universe stretching out to infinity. It’s overwhelming.”
He said he never got bored looking at Earth during his 2,720 orbits. His desert island discs included Monty Python’s Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life. His chosen book was an atlas.
Listen to the full interview on BBC Radio 4 at 11am today